NonProfit Management

Being that I did not have much knowledge, aside from the basics, on nonprofit management. I opted to look up what other nonprofit management courses were using for their text book and use that book as reference (for annotated bibliography, please see exhibition agenda). To complete my course objectives, I choose to do a comparision to the MET. The reason why I choose to do this comparison is because the MET is often referred to as a nonprofit, and while I know we are a quasi state agency, I never really understood what the difference was. I have done a comparison chart to easily explain what the differences between are. What I found was the only real difference between the MET and a non-profit is we are quasi-state agency, we receive state funds so we are not a nonprofit.







Non-profit vs the MET

Understanding Nonprofit Organizations: Goverance, Leadership and Management (2nd Edition) by J. Steven Ott and Lisa A. Dicke

Reading Reflection: Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh, Part Three: Profits, Passion and Purpose

I was sad to see the book come to an end. I feel like I could have read 1,000 more pages and been perfectly fine with that. What I really took away from this section/ entire book is, the little things make a difference, make room for change; but first, you have to know what your purpose and passion is. With this knowledge, you can make changes in the world. I loved Tony's vision for company, and the way in  which he managed that vision (through transparency, through honest communication, through pure passion for the work).  I walk away from this book, not only with a better idea with of improving work culture but for improving myself. Having that natural quest for happiness is buried within each of us, but we often overlook it to meet our responsibilities and the realities of life. But I ask, is happiness not a reality? And if you know that is, what is stopping you from being happy? What is your purpose, is it to be happy? Do you have the passion to be happy?

Reading Reflection: Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh, Part Two: Profits and Passion

I really enjoyed Part Two of this book. These chapters focused on Tony's formative years at Zappos. I really appreciated that they offered such an in-depth look into the Zappo culture and decision making process. Some of the key things that I can see myself proposing to institute or enhance current procedures:

• Culture Book (handed out to prospective staff, vendors, etc) - keep it transparent as possible by using positive and negative employee responses, no edits - facing the brutal facts (just like Good to Great)!
• The Brand, the Culture,  and employee training and development are the competitive advantage
• Once hired, everyone receives basic core value training...no matter the position
• Once hired, everyone receives training...no matter the position

Some of the concepts that stood out to me are:

• Part of growth is constant change... (you cannot grow without change, they come hand in hand)
• Many similarities between theories in Good to Great and Delivering Happiness...build the culture, and they/ it will follow
• For individuals, character is destiny. For organizations, culture is destiny.

I was also pleased to see that Zappo's uses an Ask Anything box, which is the electronic version of the MET's Affirmations, Suggestions & Questions box. Both allow employees to ask any questions (or offer a suggestion or an affirmation), and those submissions will be answered in a monthly newletter (a blog post/ newsletter at Zappos). I was glad to see that we are on the right path. 

This section speaks of the growth of profits and the the development of the passion behind Zappos. Seeing their growth period, shows that even the great companies can make mistakes, and sometimes not knowing and acting on pure belief and passion, will yield the best results. Taking risks is ok, as long as you have your core organizational beliefs to guide you.

Employer Brand 101

One of my goals this semester, was to look at different employment websites, and see what they have to offer. I was to take notes on things that stood out to me, and while I did come up with some design details that I really liked; I found that one thing the MET seemed to be lacking was an employer brand. There really wasn't much the celebrated the reason to work at the MET, or the successes of the MET staff. The employer brand is bigger than a human resource issue or a recruitment issue, it is a organizational wide issue. I decided that before one can successfully put up a website dedicated to human resources/ recruitment, we need to have something that would lead us down the right path. So I came up with a plan for creating an Employer Brand for the MET. Enjoy!

https://docs.google.com/a/metmail.org/document/d/1f7OCiNIBmFEo-fEGv4fIMsBYRMsJJ5MRLHbwcxNP6ZY/edit

Oragnizational Theory and Management Course - Political Frame {Draft}

The first draft of the politcal frame of Org Theory paper...

https://docs.google.com/a/metmail.org/document/d/1L9gRjUh-UWNwEjDug7F7dxOUwN9qmDqIWe8fTqszu-A/edit

Reading Reflection: Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh - Part One: Profits

In the introduction, Tony warns you that this book is not just about Zappos, or any other company he has been a part of; and it is not an autobiography. It is about him, and his path to happiness and finding out what that is and how to obtain it. Now naturally, information will come from his business life but what I really loved about the first part of this book, is that he includes bits of humor, to keep the reading light and enjoyable. I really enjoyed the first part of this book.

Now, to the reading; the second to last line of the second chapter is, "...I had decided to stop chasing the money, and start chasing the passion." WOW! This coming from the man who just sold his multi million dollar company, is pretty amazing! What I really loved about this first section, is he did not money control his happiness. Whenever he wasn't being true to his passion, and followed money, his productivity suffered. I loved that he was able to stop, right in the middle of all his LinkExchane/ Microsoft success, and say, what makes me happy? What do I love to do? When he realized that he what he was doing wasn't on that list, he walked away. I am sure it wasn't quite that simple, but to me, pretty amazing!

Another one of my favorite lines is, "...ultimate happiness is really just about enjoying life." I found that many of Tony's choices stemmed from his desire to be happy. It was not about status, money or power, just pure happiness. I believe that was his greatest profit of all.

Non-Profit Times "Best Non-Profits to Work For" analysis

I thought it would be interesting to compare the Non-Profit Times Best to Work For requirements to the Fortune/Great Place to Work requirements. The Non-Profit Times teams up with the Best Companies Group to conduct the analysis and assesment of each non-profit.

1) Registration and Eligibility

• Must be in business a minimum of 1 year
• Must be a non-profit with a 501(c)3 status
• Have a facility in US
• Have a minimum of 15 employees in US
• Non-profits may enter as a group, or as an individual organization as long as each participating organization is a separate legal entity.
• Registration deadline is mid October

2) Assesment

• Part 1: Employer Benefits and Policies Questionnaire
• Non-profit policies, practices and demographics.
• Part 2: Employee Engagement & Satisfaction Survey
• will select up to 400 randomly selected employees (amount will depend on size)
• Leadership and Planning
• Corporate culture and communciations
• Role Satisfaction
• Work Environment
• Relationship with Supervisor
• Training and Development
• Pay and Benefits
• Overall Engagement

3) Results

• All participating companies will receive an Employer benchmark report at no cost. The Employee Feedback reports are available for purchase to gain in-depth insight forom the employee survey process.